The Bucky We All Deserved to See in Infinity War
by HieiYYH
Summary: I added some more "screen time" and dialogue for Bucky to have before, during, and after Thanos' arrival in Wakanda. No shipping.


As Bucky hung out with the children, all under 13 years old, they put beaded bracelets, belts, necklaces, anklets, and hairpieces on him as he sat still so they could decorate him. He carefully helped a little boy tie a bracelet with his black and gold vibrainium arm. A little girl said something to him in Xhosa and smiled brightly.

"Are you asking if I like it?" he asked as he touched the string of colorful beads in his hair. He smiled, nodded, and replied, "Of course."

In the distance, a group of elders watched him as they sat around a fire. One woman said, "They say that man is broken, but he shows more kindness than I have ever seen anyone before him."

A man replied, "Letting children play in your hair is hardly a new type of kindness."

She added, "Of course it isn't new, but he doesn't know Xhosa and they don't know English, yet they communicate flawlessly."

Bucky said, "Let me help you with that." He took a string of beads from a girl and helped tie it to one of her braids.

Suddenly, the children separated, revealing a path, as T'Challa walked toward them with several body guards in tow. Bucky stood up in his colorful Wakandan robes, covered in beads and decorations.

"White Wolf," T'Challa said, "how are you feeling?"

"Like a Christmas tree," he replied as he spun around to show the countless beads he was wearing all over his body. T'Challa's face remained blank with confusion. "Right," he added, "You don't celebrate Christmas here, nevermind. What's going on?"

"Steve called," he said seriously.

Bucky lit up and replied, "Yeah?"

"The situation is dire," he explained as carefully as he could as he noticed the elders in the distance paying attention to him, "you should come back to the palace immediately." He turned to the children and said goodbye to them in Xhosa.

After Bucky waved goodbye to the children and followed him out of hearshot, he asked, "How bad was this phone call?"

"Apparently this is going to be a world ending event if things go wrong," T'Challa said, "Steve said he wanted to brief you himself. He'll be here within the hour."

* * *

Within the hour, Bucky was better appropriately dressed and at the front gates of the palace in time to see the quinjet land. The ramp hit the ground and he saw Steve, Natasha, Sam, Rhodey, and Bruce walk out together.

"...And," T'Challa said as Bucky walked up to them.

"A semi-stable hundred year old man," he finished as he walked up to Steve and hugged him.

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked.

"Not bad for the end of the world," Bucky replied, "what's going on?"

Steve said, "Brace yourself. Aliens are real."

Bucky asked, "What?"

"And these ones aren't nice," he continued, "the one coming here is named Thanos. There are also these things called infinity stones. When someone has all six of them they can grant any wish he wants at the snap of his fingers. We have one here with us, so we know he's coming straight to us in order to get the last one." He pointed behind him as Wanda helped Vision out of the quinjet.

Bucky's eyes went wide and asked, "Do we know this Thanos' guy's wish?"

"He wants to end half of all life in the universe," Steve explained, "so the other half can thrive and grow in an underpopulated environment."

Bucky frowned and said, "I was hoping T'Challa was exaggerating when he said you called this an 'end of the world event if things go wrong.'"

* * *

Inside, in Shuri's new lab, she analyzed Vision and asked, "Are you a white boy under that red skin coloring?"

"I can disguise myself as a white man," Vision replied, "yes, why?"

Shuri squeeled and said, "That makes you broken white boy number 3 I've gotten to fix! Oh, have you met broken white boy number 1 yet?" She pointed to Bucky standing several feet behind her.

He waved his left hand and said awkwardly, "Hi."

Steve gave him a WTF face and Bucky smiled at him. Steve asked in complete and utter confusion, "Who's the second man you had to...fix?"

"Everet Ross," she replied nonchalantly, "Dumbass Wolf jumped in front of a bullet for no reason."

Bucky smiled and said, "You can call this guy 'Red Wolf.'"

"Yes!" Shuri shouted, turned around, and put her fist out for a fist bump. Bucky carefully used his right hand and fist bumped her back. "Yes!" she repeated, "You're my favorite brother now, take notes T'Challa."

"Shuri," T'Challa said impaitently, "focus."

She replied, "Sorry."

Bruce gestured to Vision and explained, "We had to attach each neuron nonsequencially."

"Why didn't you preprogram the synapsis to work collectively?" she asked.

"Well," Bruce said anxiously, "we, Tony and I, didn't actually make him. Ultron started to, that's a robot from a few years ago, along with Doctor Helen Cho from South Korea and then we finished creating him into what he is now after he was 80% done by them." He shifted awkwardly.

Bucky whispered to Steve, "What is he talking about?"

Steve replied, "It's complicated. Tony and Bruce made a robot, it ended up being evil, that robot made this robot, which isn't evil but it's powered by one of the infinity stones I told you about earlier, which is what Thanos is after."

"Red Wolf is a robot?" Bucky asked, both impressed and horrified.

"His name is Vision," he whispered seriously.

"Why?" Bucky asked.

Steve whispered, "Because Thor had a vision of him."

Bucky shook his head and asked, "Who had a vision of this robot thing?"

T'Challa interrupted, "We need to prepare for a major assault on Wakanda now." He stared at Steve and Bucky.

Startled, they both jumped nervously as if they were just caught by the school teacher for doing something bad at the back of the classroom. "Sorry," Steve said, "Your Majesty. We're ready."

"White Wolf," Shuri said as she ran across her lab, "I have you new weapon and a machine gun for you here." She threw him what looked like a hilt of a sword from across the room. He caught it seemlessly with his left hand. Then she handed him a gun with several loaded magazines.

Steve asked, "What is that?"

"You'll see," he replied.

* * *

Meanwhile on the battlefield before the fight began, Bucky stood beside Steve and Natasha with the Wakandan forces.

"Did they resurrender?" Bucky asked.

"Not exactly," Steve replied.

Bucky asked as he cocked his gun, "Who came up with this battle strategy? Shouldn't we be on the outside of the barrier with it as our backup, or at least have some people on the inside and some on the outside?"

"King T'Challa did," Steve said, "and they might be able to break through the barrier no matter what we do."

Bucky shook his head and asked, "Why are we assuming that though?"

Natasha said, "Maybe he should have been at the battle meeting."

They watched as the alien dogs charged the barrier in droves. Bucky asked, "What the hell are those things?"

Steve analyzed them and said, "They look like...alien dogs...I think. I don't know, Bucky." He took out his new shields.

"We're going to fight hoards of alien dogs," Bucky said as he wrapped his head around the situation, "in hand-to-hand combat with little to no air support or any kind of missiles or other long range attacks." He glanced at Steve.

"He really should have been at the battle meeting, Steve," Natasha replied as they continued to watch the dogs killing themselves in the barrier.

T'Challa said in his headpiece, "They're circling around the barrier. If they get through they could go in behind us and get to the city and Vision."

Bucky muttered under his breath, "It's almost like some of us should be on the outside of it to distract them or something so they can't do that."

Steve swatted his arm and said, "I don't want hear it, Buck."

T'Challa comanded, "Open the barrier."

After a part of the barrier was opened, hundreds upon hundreds of alien dogs swarmed inside and charged straight for them. T'Challa shouted, "Wakanda Forever!"

Steve and T'Challa ran ahead of everyone straight for the dogs. Bucky demanded, "What are you doing?"

"You're enhanced like they are," Natasha said as everyone ran forward, "shouldn't you be ahead of them?"

Bucky said, "They're alien dogs, they could have saliva that melts bones or acid on their skin or something. Steve, don't touch them!" He watched as Steve used his shields and reletlessly attacked several dogs at once. Bucky started shooting, killing them one by one while keeping a safe distance.

Steve replied through the com, "I can touch them just fine, Bucky."

"The serum didn't fix everything you still suffer from dumbass disease I see," Bucky muttered under his breath as the swarmed moved closer and the groups collided.

"I heard that!" Steve said.

* * *

As the battle waged on, Bucky reloaded his gun but it was swatted from his hand by a dog. He took out the hilt and hit a button, making a small blade come out, slicing the dog's neck easily and killing it as he rolled out from under it.

Natasha saw and said, "Your sword has that large of a hilt but only has a small 3 inch blade?"

Another dog charged him, he hit another button and a massive sword several feet long stabbed the beast before it could get close.

"Oh," Natasha said, "that's neat."

He glanced at her as more dogs surrounded him. He stabbed one in front of him and as another approached from behind he hit another button on the hilt and a second blade came out behind him, slicing through the beast and killing it instantly. When he hit another button the blades disappered back into the hilt.

"That's cooler than neat," Natasha said, "I want one."

Bucky replied, "Ask Shuri for one later but I should warn you, I trained for months to wield it properly." He picked up his gun and continued shooting the aliens dogs left and right.

As the battle waged on, Bucky noticed Steve get pinned against several dogs at once. "Steve!" he called as he took out his hilt again. He pushed a button on the side that took out both blades at once, and morphed for them to be curved as well.

When he threw it, it moved through the air and sliced through several alien dogs at once, including the ones covering Steve, and then cut through the air like a boomerang swiflty back into Bucky's left hand.

"I had them on the ropes," Steve said as he stood up.

"Sure you did," Bucky replied, smiling as he remembered saving Steve in a back alley years ago. He put the hilt back in his strap and continued shooting.

* * *

When Bucky's back was turned away from the entrance of the barrier, a flash of light appeared and knocked him down hard, smashing his head against the rocks on the ground. When he woke up, he struggled to his feet and caught his breath as he held his gun in front of him, ready to fire.

He turned and saw a moving tree making it's way through the battle field. In shock, without thinking, he aimed his gun at it.

"No!" Steve said as he came up on his right and held the barrel of his gun, "The tree is with us. His name is Groot."

Bucky carefully lowered the gun and asked, "What the hell?"

"He came here with Thor," he explained, "you didn't see that amazing lightning action where hundreds of dogs died at once with one motion of his axe? You missed that whole thing? They just came down from outer space!" He stared at him in disbelief.

"I think I got knocked out from that," Bucky said.

Steve said, "Don't shoot him. He's on our side."

"If you shoot Groot I will kill you no matter who's side you're on," a voice from Bucky's left said.

As he turned he saw an upright racoon with a gun and gasped in shock. He fired a shot instinctively.

Rocket shouted in pain and rubbed his face, "You got some of my whiskers in that blast! You better stand down!" He aimed the gun at Bucky.

"What?" Bucky asked in utter confusion, hoping he didn't hit his head too hard earlier. "A raccoon is talking to me?" He looked at Steve, completely confused as to what was happening in front of him.

"Whoa!" Steve said as he stood between them, "Wait! Don't fire! Who are you?"

"The name's Rocket," he answered, "And I'm not a raccoon! Don't call me that! I came here with Groot and the big guy." He pointed at Thor who was shooting lightning in the distance and killing a hundred dogs at once.

Bucky asked, "You came from outer space with them? How?"

Rocket started firing at the dogs and explained, "Since we're in the middle of an epic battle between the forces of good and evil I don't exactly have time to explain everything to you at this very moment!"

Steve patted Bucky's back and said, "Don't kill him, Buck." He ran back into battle.

* * *

Bucky went back to shooting alien dogs left and right, they began swarming in faster than he could kill them with his gun but he didn't have enough time to reach down and grab his new weapon. He saw Rocket still beside him, grabbed him without thinking first, and swung him around as they both shot the hoards dead.

"That was awesome!" Rocket shouted, "How much for the gun?"

"Not for sale," Bucky replied.

"What about the arm?" he asked.

Bucky glared at him as he walked away. He could have sworn he heard him say, _"Oh I'm going to get that arm."_ Under his breath but he paid no attention.

* * *

Later, they dug under the barrier and began attacking everyone inside by shredding the ground and anyone in their way.

"If they could do that this whole time why wait until now?" Bucky asked as he continued to fire his gun, "They could have started the battle with that."

"Bucky," Steve said as calmly as he could, "don't critique their battle strategy."

"Sorry," he replied, "I was programmed with maximum efficiency for fighting so when I see inefficiencies _that bad_ I can't ignore it."

Sam said as he flew over him, "Man, shut the hell up. We want them to lose."

* * *

As the battle continued much later, he heard Bruce say through in his com, "That's him. That's Thanos."

"Everyone needs to get to me now," Steve commanded, "We're in the forest to the west of the battlefield. If you can make it, make your way over here. He has the stones on his left hand."

Bucky threw his new weapon to kill all of the dogs surrounding him before running in Steve's direction. He caught his weapon seemlessly and reached for another loaded magazine on him but there were none. He had officially run out of bullets. He continued to hold the gun anyway.

When he made it through the trees, he saw a hideous periwinkle man push Steve off to the side and march forward. Bucky ran in front of his path and aimed his gun at him. Thanos swiped it off to the side easily without even bothering using the stones.

"If that was loaded you would have fired already," Thanos said menacingly as he continued to walk toward him, "don't toy with me."

Bucky walked backwards quickly and took his weapon out behind his back. Because he was made of vibrainium it made no noise while activating or moving through the air. He got far enough away and threw it at Thanos. Instead of hitting him straight on, he whiped around him instead and flew into the sky behind him.

"Damn," Bucky whispered as he took another few steps backwards.

Thanos moved closer to him and said, "Too bad you have bad aim." He closed his fist, ready to fire an attack towards Bucky when the weapon flew towards him from behind and sliced through Thanos' back as if he were made of butter. He fell to his knees in pain as he realized what just happened.

"That was on purpose," Thanos explained, "you weren't afraid; you walked backwards to gode me into walking towards you so your weapon would hit me." He carefully took the blade out of his back and used the time stone to instantly heal himself, then he chucked the weapon at Bucky, who caught it in midair with his right hand.

Thanos continued, "You're clever. I need your name."

Now panicking since his plan work let alone harm him, Bucky stalled and asked, "Why?"

"So I can remember the only man that ever outsmarted me," he answered, "though only for a moment, it was impressive."

"Sorry," Bucky replied, "I won't waste my breath on a walking dead man."

Enraged, Thanos closed his fist. Steve managed to get around him and grabbed his hand before he could move. Bucky charged forward and grabbed the glove. Thanos whipped them around and threw them off to the side easily.

Steve landed on Bucky and then rolled off to his right side. Groaning in pain, Steve said, "I think I broke something."

"I got the green one off of his glove," Bucky said, catching his breath, "what does that one do?" He looked over and saw Steve's skinny body struggling to fill his now oversized clothes. Bucky glanced down at himself and saw his natural left arm was back and his hair was now short. "Steve?" he said nervously.

"What?" Steve asked as he got on all fours. He looked at his preserum body and glanced at him, "Bucky?"

Bucky asked, "What happened?"

"The time stone," he said in panic as he stood up suddenly, "you got the time stone! Change us back!"

"How?" Bucky demanded as he stood up, now a whole head and shoulders taller than Steve, "I don't even know how I changed us in the first place!"

Thanos said angrily, "So you stole the time stone from me. Don't think you can get away with that!"

"Run!" Bucky shouted as he grabbed Steve's wrist. He threw his weapon at Thanos, but he used the space stone to throw it off to the side and stuck it into a tree as he charged toward them.

Steve demanded as they ran, "Where's your gun?"

"Out of bullets!" he answered.

Bucky ran through the trees as fast he could, dragging Steve along, not caring that he was struggling to keep up with his short legs. After a moment, Steve stopped and said, "I can't...I...I think I'm having as asthma attack. Hold on!" His breath kept getting cut short as he hyperventilated.

"Not now, come on," Bucky said desperately. He took Steve and put him onto his left shoulder. Steve tried to lean upward and brace himself against Bucky's back so he could see Thanos trying to keep up.

Sam asked from above, "What are you guys doing down there?"

"Sam!" Bucky shouted, "Catch!" He threw the time stone up at Sam who caught it, then instantly turned into a teenager and crashed into the ground next to them.

"What the?" he asked as he examined himself, "What just happened?"

Bucky grabbed him and said, "Dammit, no." As soon as they touched, they instantly turned back into their adults selves. Steve stood onto his own feet as he grew back to his larger self. Both Bucky and Steve screamed out in pain as they fell backwards, Bucky grabbing his left side.

Sam asked, "The time stone? Shit!" He saw Thanos and tried to take off but the space stone in his gauntlet stopped him from moving.

"I need a minute," Bucky said painfully, "it feels like my arm just got ripped off. AH!"

"It feels like I just took the serum again," Steve whined, "Oh God."

Meanwhile Thanos easily took the time stone from Sam as his minions grabbed and injured and weakened Vision for him. Steve recovered and was back on his feet and in the fight again meanwhile Bucky writhed on the ground still in pain. He saw countless people run passed him to help take down Thanos and watched each and every one of them fail.

When he finally managed to stand up, a flash of light attacked Thanos' chest directly and Thor flew in from out of nowhere. Just as Bucky was about to breathe a sigh of relief and walked toward Steve, Thanos performed the snap with his left hand anyway and then disappeared in a blue and grey cloud.

Steve asked, "What just happened?"

Bucky walked up behind him as he felt himself going numb. He looked down at his hands and they started to disappear into ash before his eyes. "Steve..." he said nervously. He took his last breath and collapsed.


End file.
